I’m still cooking outside as much as possible. Even when we get the summer heat waves, I’d rather be next to my Big Green Egg with a cold craft beer than to bring any of that heat into the AC’ed house.It’s probably the ol’ Boy Scout in me, too. Cooking over the campfire and all that.
Here’s a great side dish inspired from one of my favorite cooking with beer guys, Bryan Richards. The stuffed onion in it’s original recipe features smoky Rauchbier, one of the notable brews coming out of the city of Bamberg, Germany. However you can use a smoky local brew to fill the gap, such as Surly Smoke or any number of offerings from Hammerheart Brewing in Lino Lakes. You’ll also find some tasty smoky brews at the better off-sale sites.
And although I called this a side dish, paired with a tossed salad and some bread toasted over the grill, this is really a nice summer meal. I like to offset the smoky flavors in the recipe by sipping a cool lager or blonde ale with the meal. But you may certainly pile it on yourself and go for more smoky sipping!
First off get your grill going nice and hot, so you can sustain indirect heat at 350-400 degrees for an hour or so. For me, the natural lump charcoal works best for that. As you may know from previous (outdoor) recipes, I have portable gas burners that I use for fried turkeys, lobster boils and big loads of summer corn on the cob. A good investment if you don’t have one. Today we’ll use it outside to reduce some beef stock and beer and then make smoky gravy.
Ingredients
4 large, sweet Vidalia onions
1 pound of ground pork
1/4 pound smoked sausage (crumbled)
1/4 tsp mace
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
3 eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 cups beef stock, with 2 T. reserved
4 slices smoked bacon
12 ounces smoked beer
Directions
Cut the root end off the onions so they sit flat and then peel the onion. Cut off the cap of the onion and scoop out the insides so that the sides of the onion are a quarter inch thick. Finely chop half of the scooped onion and discard the rest. Sauté until soft.
In a small pan, combine 1 cup of beef broth and six ounces of smoked beer. Over medium heat reduce that to one cup, and let cool.
Mix the cooked onion, ground meat, eggs, breadcrumbs, sausage and spices in a large bowl. Fill the onions with the meat mixture and place in a casserole dish, pouring enough beef/beer stock to cover the bottom. Bake on indirect grill heat at 400°F for 45 minutes. Add more stock as necessary, and turn the casserole dish every so often to distribute the heat evenly.
While the onions are cooking place the four slices of bacon on the grill and cook them until somewhat crispy. Let cool and chop into small pieces.
When the onions are done, remove them from the casserole dish. Pour the drippings from the casserole into a skillet and whisk in the flour. Once you have a rue, whisk in the reserved stock and remaining smoked beer, simmering until you have a thick gravy.
Plate the onions, top them with with chopped bacon and smoky gravy. If you decided to make toast, you can put the onions on top of the toast as you plate them, and pour the gravy over everything. Good plan, as you won’t want to waste a drop!
(By the way, Bryan Richards has traveled to Bamberg, Germany and mentions that the city of 70,000 boasts nine breweries, with 400 more in the surrounding countryside. Road Trip! Ummm, I mean AIR and Road Trip!)